China's Impact on Hollywood

‘Transformers 4′: Why the Box Office Smash is a Turning Point in China

The world’s second largest film market cast a shadow over the move business this week, pumping up the global grosses of “Transformers: Age of Extinction” by injecting a record-breaking $90 million into its opening haul. That crushes the previous high-water market of $64.5 million for “Iron Man 3″ and nearly matches the $92.5 million that Chinese-made “Journey to the West” grossed in its first seven days of release.

In total, China contributed roughly half of the fourth “Transformers” film’s international gross and nearly matched its U.S. debut.

“It’s a turning point for the dynamic between Hollywood and China,” said Phil Contrino, vice president and chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. “This taps into a whole new potential in terms of what a movie can do when it opens at the same time in the U.S. and China.”

How to get into the China market? Make sure the film is timed correctly. There are no U.S. releases for the next month, giving the summer to Chinese films, and the next U.S. film is American Hustle, which won't earn much.

Why Release Dates Matter for Hollywood Films in China

Synched international release dates keep people from downloading pirated versions, Mr. Curtin said, noting that they also create the most of online buzz for a film in a crowded market where advertising is tightly regulated. “X-Men: Days of Future Past” opened simultaneously on May 23 in the U.S. and China. The film took in $119 million in China, according to Beijing-based film data firm EntGroup, 54% of its U.S. results.

Many filmmakers want to build hype and bring their casts to China for red-carpet events, but they may know their opening dates only a few weeks before they happen, so they have to scurry to buy ads and promote the movie, said China film expert and producer Lora Chen, who splits her time between China and the U.S..

Regulators sometimes manipulate the revenue balance between Chinese and foreign-made films at the box office by scheduling two at the same time, as was the case in 2012 with “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Amazing Spider-Man.” They also schedule blackout periods or roll out unexpected intervention tactics. In 2006, as live-action animations “Happy Feet” and “Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties” gained popularity, China announced a ban on TV shows and films blending cartoons with live actors.

The controls are meant to protect the rise of the local film industry, but experts say they’ve resulted in foreign studios creating alliances with influential Chinese partners who can sway regulators to clear a date for them. Some have cozied up to real-estate bigwigs. A few others have tried to secure government approval for so-called Chinese co-productions; although these result in set and secure release dates, they also require giving creative control to Chinese officials.

Bart & Fleming: Is China Hollywood’s Future, Or Folly?

Everyone I encounter in town this week seems fixated on Chinese takeout — only it’s finance, not food. Specifically, funding for films and theme parks. Here’s the catch: For every mogul who claims he’s made a ‘killer deal,’ I run into ten who say their deals imploded. “Once your deal closes with the Chinese, that’s when the real negotiations begin,” according to one veteran of the co-production process. Jeff Robinov and Ryan Kavanaugh may have announced megadeals, but will they get their money? On a smaller scale, look what just happened to Paramount on their Transformers: Age Of Extinction deal – a Chinese partner (the Pangu Group) changed their minds when they saw the film and it endangered the China release of the movie. Two weeks ago China abruptly scrapped a giant alliance between the world’s three largest container-shipping companies, triggering confusion among Euro entities like Maersk as well as US lines.


...... Inhibiting the potentially lucrative co-production process is a long list of “no nos” imposed by Chinese censors. Movies can’t “re-interpret” history, depict the supernatural or display “gratuitous violence.” Those are the official censorship bans. Unofficially, movies can’t depict an American looking smarter than a Chinese character. Bruce Feirstein, the very successful writer of two James Bond films, who has written and produced several co-productions in China, tells me it’s a disastrous mistake for a movie to portray an American leading man who goes to China, does an action scene with, say, Jackie Chan, and then gets the girl. The Chinese girl, that is. “There are 650 million Chinese men who would not like that scene,” he reminds me.

...... no vigilante-ism; no civil disobedience; police and military can have guns, but no guns or serious violence by Chinese civilians; no Chinese villains unless they are from Hong Kong or Taiwan; no explicit sex; no Chinese prostitutes. On the genre front: no horror films; no ghosts, no vampires and no werewolves; no religious-based films; no time-travel movies.